Day: April 14, 2012

Shortly before 12.45 this afternoon at Wembley Stadium almost ninety thousand people fell silent in memory of the Hillsborough disaster, which happened twenty-three years ago this weekend. It was a moment to bring a lump to the throat, a moment to pause and reflect upon the lives and deaths of ninety-six people, of whom seventy-seven were under the age of thirty years old at the time that they died. It was a moment to cast aside club loyalties, and to wish silently for justice for these people and their relatives. Yet with the end of the minute’s silence came a familiar roar. For all the commemoration today, this afternoon was about the twenty-first century, the fraternal rivalry between Liverpool and Everton and the conclusion of what has been, in various idiosyncratic ways, a remarkable season for both of these clubs. In amongst the traditions and the history surrounding this afternoons match, however, certain prosaic truths about the game of football remain as constant as the laws of physics and not very far from the top of that list are the words, “Get rid of it!”. Twenty-four minutes into this afternoon’s match, that basic rule went out of the window, as far as Liverpool’s defence was concerned. It had been a quiet opening to the match, with both times feeling each other out, prodding and poking for a weakness at...

That they were playing on a Friday night in the first place told a story of its own. Northwich Victoria were entertaining Hednesford Town in a Premier Division match of the Northern Premier League last night when the news came through which rendered any efforts that the team puts in for the remainder of this season – an official announcement from the league in which they play that they have been found guilty of charges raised against them over non-payment of their CVA and will be barred from entering the play-offs in the league at the end of season. On top of this, the league confirmed that the clubs membership of the Northern Premier League will be terminated, meaning that the club will be relegated into the North West Counties League at the end of this season. The news emerged last week that Northwich Victoria had not been paying the arrangement which kept the club playing after their last insolvency event in 2009, meaning that the league has found the club to be “found guilty of failing to comply with League Rules 2.9.2, 2.9.3 and 14 b 4 relating to financial matters.” The club responded with an immediate statement (including a sideswipe at those that have been critical of Chairman Rushe in recent weeks, in the form of reassuring “all genuine Northwich Victoria supporters that we will pursue the...